I've been driving and abusing the Thing over the last several weekends. This isn't really a build project anymore, although I still have a long list of items I'd like to complete, add or upgrade.

Last weekend, we trailed the car to Logandale Trails and spend most of the day bouncing the car on sandy quad trails. Finally, ended up breaking the transmission side gear shaft after landing a jump. The consensus from the VW forums is that I should engage the clutch when the car is in the air. I'm going to have to pull the engine and transmission to assess the damage. Hopefully I can fix this cheaply with one of the spare transmissions I have. If not, maybe this is my oportunity to upgrade to a bus transmission.